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Why do Satanists worship The Devil?

We don’t. Satanists are atheists. We see the universe as being indifferent to us, and so all morals and values are subjective human constructions.

Our position is to be self-centered, with ourselves being the most important person (the “God”) of our subjective universe, so we are sometimes said to worship ourselves. Our current High Priest Gilmore calls this the step moving from being an atheist to being an “I-Theist.”

Satan to us is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential. We do not believe in Satan as a being or person.

Do Satanists perform sacrifices?

No. We are atheists. The only people who perform sacrifices are those who believe in supernatural beings who would consider a sacrifice to be some form of payment for a request or form of worship. Since we do not believe in supernatural beings there is no reason for a Satanist to make a sacrifice of any sort.

I heard that Satanism supports sex with children and other ways to harm them—how do you justify that?

Satanism has strong rules prohibiting sexual activity with children and non-human animals. In fact, if a Church of Satan member abuses children sexually or otherwise, his membership is automatically terminated without possibility for re-instatement. The Church of Satan also does not accept anyone who is not legally adult as an Active Member. In Satanism, sexual activity is only advocated between consenting adults.

Do Satanists ritually abuse people?

No. Our ritual is basically a form of self-therapy and is most often done in private. The three basic rituals are presented in The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey and these do not demonstrate any type of abusive behavior.

What is “Theistic Satanism”?

There is no such thing. People who believe in some Devilish supernatural being and worship him are Devil-worshippers, not Satanists. Anton LaVey was the first to define Satanism as a philosophy, and it is an atheist perspective. “Theistic Satanism” is an oxymoronic term and thus absurd. In Satanism each individual is his or her own god—there is no room for any other god and that includes Satan, Lucifer, Cthulhu or whatever other name one might select or take from history or fiction.

Isn’t LaVey’s Satanism just plagiarized from other sources?

When LaVey refers to an idea, concept, or quote derived or taken from someone else, he often cites the author, either in the paragraph or in the indexes of his books. If anything LaVey writes seems similar to past concepts, oftentimes, it is augmented with modern circumstances, as well as his own thoughts. Seeing that Satanism is a work in progress, an attempt for melding science with philosophy, we are fully justified in choosing the concepts of old, working with them in our context and taking them into the future. (If we didn’t, who else would?) This is the same process used by scientists, doctors, psychologists, and many other professionals. Nothing would get done if individuals merely went along with established thought and never added to it. It’s evolution, pure and simple.

Picture a Satanist, and you might imagine someone dressed in a black cloak and mask engaging in bizarre violent rituals involving the blood of dead animals and an inverted pentagram etched onto the ground in chalk. At some point in this vision, Satan might even burst through the floor in a flurry of fire and bring an end to the world. All in all, a Satanist is not the sort of person you'll be calling up to have dinner with your mum anytime soon.

But those are the sorts of stereotypes that Ashley S. Palmer, a reverend of the Church of Satan, wants to debunk.

Satanists may not sound like the friendliest types, but the 31-year-old who lives on the south-east coast of England with his wife and baby daughter is happy to explain why his religion is misunderstood. It has nothing to do with devil worship, he stresses. The religion, founded just over 50 years ago by US author and musician Anton Szandor LaVey has much more to do with atheism and libertarian ideals of the freedom to indulge, muddled together with a dash of Machiavellian pragmatism.

Satanism has an interesting strength in that it IS a religion. As such, it can act as a counter to some efforts by Christians to exercise their perceived privilege, especially in the courts. A recent decision in Missouri regarding abortion rights shows how important having an alternative religion whose principles diverge from the norm can be in dealing with legal issues, where atheistic opposition might not have been as effective.

Thank you for this link. I didn't know much about Satanism but have a better idea now. I would state though that some if not many of the Satanist principles such as atheism, scepticism and humour are better exemplified by the Church of FSM.

I would suggest if you feel stronly about it, start a Satanist group on these forums (if there's not one already) and see how many atheists feel similarly.

My favourite TV Satanist character is Gilfoyle from the TV series, Silicon Valley.